Tonight, Tonight

In case you're wondering what I've been doing with my ever-precious time, here are a few answers.

I'm in school, or at least registered in classes that I occasionally attend. I dropped one more today. Why do I suck at school?

Working more: I love it, my wallet loves it, but it's turning me into (more of) an alcoholic. I do love my work people though.

I found every episode of Law & Order online. Nerdy? Yes. Essential to my knowledge of the character development of Lennie Briscoe? Absolutely.

I've watched this about 8 times, trying to get the Russian down word-for-word to the English text. I know the first page or so of this book by heart, and I wish I could read Russian to see how it plays in Nabokov's first language. The thing about this dude is that he speaks English as a third language, and he has a vocabulary waaaaay beyond anything I can ever dream of having. (How's that for an awkward sentence? But you get my point.)


Found a tumblr blog randomly, I think from The Superficial, and I'm reading through archives. Kindacarsick, if you're interested. Hipster alert, but in a fairly un-irritating way.

I'm thinking about going to New York for Christmas instead of back out East. I figure I'm only there for a few days, I'll see a few people and stress out about the people who I don't have time/the schedule to see, and it's hella expensive... then again, Manhattan on Christmas day will probably be quiet and boring. Maybe good for wandering around and taking pretty pretty quiet(ish) New York pictures though. Any input is appreciated.

Lazy Sunday

No Chronicles of Narnia, but I've got a good Sunday routine down these days: cleaning, laundry in the evening, getting some groceries, making something delicious with said groceries, and listening to NPR podcasts. Tonight I'm adding in some dep wine, because I'm classy.
My very very good friend Ellen graduated from McGill's Schulich School of Music on Friday. I learned all kinds of things, and had others confirmed for me.
Learned:
There's a pretty small grad class for the music school, probably every year, and it's full of music jokes that most of the audience didn't always get.
Parents are jerks with their cameras and will step in front of you at every oppertunity.
People do not understand the direction "keep out of the aisles during the ceremony."
Confirmed:
Someone always doesn't turn off their phone, and there is a muffled ring at some point.
Even in convocation speeches, universities will still ask for money.
Bagpipers are always funny-looking in pictures. Sorry, dudes.
Beyond all of this, it was pretty nice. Not too long, and afterward we took some cheesy pictures and drank lots of wine (ok, *I* drank lots of wine). Here we are at the reception:

And here is Ellen with one of my favourite music schoolers (former music schoolers now), Nick Davis (never just Nick, always Nick Davis):

I have about 20 pictures from Ellen's harp recital featuring Nick in that classy pose. I'm a huge fan. Ellen left today for Toronto; on Friday, she's playing Nick's wedding. Before she left she and her roommates moved into a brand new lovely apartment, and yesterday we did some cleaning and moving around while blasting Down At The Khyber. It inspired me to grab some new cleaning supplies and go to town at my place as well. I didn't, of course, but I totally plan to in a few minutes. I think that some of the new cleaners (biodegradable!) that I bought are the most exciting purchase of the past month. Does anyone else get excited about buying new things for cleaning? I don't know, I just find very few things as satisfying as a really clean and fresh new sponge or mop. Lovely!
...I need a job.
Happy Sunday!

Ahh, college life

Yup, I have this dream. Sometimes it's even for real, leading me to drop a class or two. Ugh.
Gonna try a new broccoli soup recipe today, adding a little but of bacon for that delicious smokiness and changing up some herbs. Should be magically delicious!

Academic Pursuits

For some reason, I can never spell "pursuits" correctly. I know it's just "pur" and "suits," but I can't seem to reconcile the two. Why can't syllables all just get along in my head?
I've been writing a paper all morning, and all afternoon. It's technically due in 20 minutes. I am definitely not going to class. For some reason, I'm completely mentally blocked. It's a subject I find fascinating - legal pluralism, and its application in Supreme Court cases in Canada - but I'm all over the place. Normally I can write 8 pages in about 2 hours, no problem. I guess normally I've already done the readings too, but still. I'm on hour 5 and I've only got 3 pages done. This feels like an episode of Dr. Who where I get stuck in some sort of space-time continuum and keep going back to what I've already written but not recognizing when I wrote it or why it made sense at the time. Weird, right? Also incredibly frustrating. I even missed what was sure to be one of the best classes of the semester in my Rights and Freedoms course - R v. Morgentaler. I had all kinds of wicked background on that case, plus lots of info on the next SCC Morgentaler case about the Halifax abortion clinic, but instead I had to sit here writing this stupid piece of shit. And I mean that; I know it's not going to be one of my better, fluid, here's-my-clear-and-well-stated-argument-that-you-will-use-as-an-example-of-wicked-writing papers. The SCC decision is 80 pages, the legal pluralism article I need to reference in relation is 30 pages, and the paper's just 7-8. I'm just going through frantically, finding evidence and building my arguments as I go along.
The next time I'm all set to hang out and do nothing instead of writing a paper with one of you, remind me of this moment. I'm going to try and refocus. And maybe eat some Greek salad (I'm also inexplicably adverse to eating anything today, which might be contributing to my lack of focus, but I'm just 100% not hungry. When does that ever happen?!).